1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus used to attach a cable, and more specifically to apparatus used to attach a cable to a keyboard.
2. Description of the Prior Art: FIG. 1
For many years, keyboards were integral parts of the devices with which they were used. However, as keyboards used with digital devices began to respond to keystrokes by transmitting digital codes, the only connection required between the keyboard and the digital device was a cable. Consequently, keyboards began to appear which were independent entities and which were connected to the digital device solely by means of the cable. Such keyboards rapidly became popular, since they permitted the user of the digital device to put the keyboard wherever he pleased.
Systems using independent keyboards typically have the form shown in FIG. 1. Small computer system 109 of that figure has three separate parts: CPU 101, which contains the central processing unit, DISP 103, which contains the CRT display for the system, and keyboard (KB) 105, which is the keyboard for the system. DISP 103 is connected to CPU 101 by cable 111 and KB 105 is connected thereto by cable 107. KB 105, DISP 103, and CPU 101 may have any locations relative to each other which is convenient for the user of the system.
One limitation on the freedom of the user to arrange his system as he pleases has been the fact that in most KBs 105, a user of the system cannot change the point at which cable 107 is connected to KB 105. For example, in the KB 105 of FIG. 1, cable 107 is permanently attached to the upper right hand corner of KB 105. While that arrangement is advantageous when system 109 is arranged as shown in FIG. 1, it is not advantageous if CPU 101 is located to the left of DISP 103, since in that case, cable 107 must either be long enough to run behind DISP 103 or must cross the desk area between KB 105 and DISP 103.
As shown in FIG. 1A, some prior art KBs 105 have permitted a user of KB 105 to choose which corner cable 107 would be attached to. FIG. 1A presents bottom views of two KBs 105, KB 105B and KB 105C. The bottom of KB 105B contains Y-shaped channel 113. The location at which cable 107 is plugged into KB 105B is at the base of channel 113, and the branches of channel 113 have tabs 112 which retain cable 107 in channel 113. When a user of KB 105B sets up his system, he plugs cable 107 in at the base of channel 113 and chooses which corner of KB 1058 he wishes cable 107 to be attached to. He then pushes cable 107 around tabs 112 into the branch of channel 113 which ends at the proper corner of KB 105B. As may be seen from the foregoing description, the operation of attaching the cable, while not difficult, is time consuming.
Another arrangement permitting cable 107 to emerge from either corner of KB 105 is shown in KB 105C. There, the back of KB 105C contains a channel 115 which is covered by snap-on cover 119. Cable 107 is plugged into KB 105C in the center of channel 115. The user of KB 105C runs cable 107 through channel 115 to the desired corner of KB 105C and then snaps cover 119 onto channel 115 to retain cable 107 in channel 115. Again, the operation of attaching the cable, while not difficult, is time consuming.
The arrangements employed in KBs 105B and 105C are intended only to permit the user some choice when he originally sets up his system; they are too time consuming to serve users who wish to reconfigure cable 107 while using his KB 105. The need for such reconfiguration has increased as KB 105 has itself been used as a point of attachment for auxiliary input devices such as a mouse, a joy stick, or a pressure-senitive pad. FIG. 1B shows a prior-art system 109 with mouse 110. Generally speaking, cable 117 for mouse 110 is connected to CPU 101; however, in some systems, cable 117 is connected to KB 105, as shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 1B. The latter arrangement is particularly advantageous when CPU 101 is under the user's desk or at some other relatively inaccessible location.
The mouse, joy stick, or pad is generally not as frequently used as the keyboard, and must therefore be easily detachable. Moreover, all of these devices are designed to be used with one hand, and consequently, their locations with respect to the keyboard will depend on whether the user is right or left handed. For these reasons, it is even less desirable to limit attachment of the cables for these devices to a single point on the keyboard than it is to so limit the attachment of cable 107 for the keyboard itself. Moreover, the fact that more than one cable is connected to the keyboard has further limited the utility of prior-art attachment systems. For example, the tabs 12 used in channel 113 of FIG. 1A must be designed for a single size of cable. If, as is often the case, cable 107 is of a different size than cable 117, one of them will either not fit into or fall out of channel 113.
What is needed, and what the invention disclosed herein provides, is a way of attaching cables to apparatus which is easy, flexible, inexpensive, and permits attachment of several cables having different sizes.